The Antics of Armor Emblem
by MissMarifire
Summary: After their long journey, this particular armor emblem team arrives at the finale of the Tempest Trial. Sitting atop the back of the Fell Dragon, Grima, they must fight their way through this last skirmish. Also, this fic is a solid two months late. Crosspost from Archive of Our Own.


_"HRAAAGH!"_

Henry was thrown from one side of the Fell Dragon's back to the other, grasping the straps of his coffin as he braced for the impact of its dense scales. His coffin smacked upon one of the scales, sliding another metre until hitting a complete stop. "Geez, Effie, what the heck was that for?!" the Plegian mage whined, looking for his fellow hero-at-arms who had delivered him from danger.

From his view, he saw Effie standing guard against a familiar Wyvern Rider: Cherche! "What's Cherche doing here?" the Plegian mage thought to himself. He recalled having once met her before, even befriending the very wyvern she rode. To find them at opposing sides was a thought that surprised him, although the volatile nature of the Tempest gave way to endless possibilities. Being too far to assist Effie in the battle, he sat upon his coffin, watching from afar as he studied his visceral wounds.

"Henry, I'll be fine! Just go!" the Nohrian knight attempting to deflect an oncoming attack from an enemy Cherche using her shield. Being a little too slow turning, however, she failed to deflect Cherche's hammer, knocking Effie back as the weapon dented her armor, the indentation tightly pressing against her torso. Clenching her teeth from pain, she charged towards the wyvern rider with her Silver Lance, sharply jabbing it into the wyvern's neck.

Her wyvern unleashed a bloodcurdling cry in searing pain, Effie's lance embedding itself further into the wound. Effie forced her lance out of its neck, backing up before the wyvern could counterattack.

"Minerva!" her Cherche exclaimed, putting a hand to her mouth upon the sight of the blood spurting from the puncture wound. Turning towards Effie with a scowl, her grip upon her hammer tightened as she jumped from her wyvern, lunging herself towards the knight. "How dare you!" she swung her hammer, only to find it torn from her grasp. The head of the hammer curved around Effie's lance, landing a metre or so away.

Now disarmed, Cherche made a dash towards her hammer. The Nohrian knight approached the wyvern rider, preparing her lance. "No more holding back!" she yelled, twirling her lance before thrusting its head into Cherche's open back before she could reach for her weapon. The wyvern rider wailed, looking behind her with a frightened expression as her screams crescendoed, squirming furiously.

Effie turned from behind her, taking the lance out of Cherche's back. From behind, Minerva made an attempt to save her friend by pouncing herself upon the Nohrian knight. Quickly holding her lance out towards the wyvern, Minerva torso landed upon its head, its point digging deeply into her chest. Turning the lance forward, the blade further severed the dragon's torso while allowing Effie more distance between herself and Minerva.

While Effie was preoccupied with Minerva, Cherche crawled towards her hammer. Using the hilt to prop herself up, she made her last stand: throwing the hammer towards the knight. The hammer slammed against Effie's side, making her losing grip of the lance- but not all was well for this wyvern rider, as Minerva, still impaled by Effie's lance, plunged towards her. The wyvern slammed onto Cherche, incapacitating her. With the dying Minerva by her side, Cherche uttered a single word. "T-Tragic…" she moaned in defeat, her body fading away into the Tempest's winds.

Effie sighed in relief, seeing the enemy fall before her. Another enemy taken down meant there would soon be food to be eaten, and especially in Effie's own case, lots of it. The trials that the team had piqued her hunger, however the frequent sight of death suppressed such cravings. Still, this didn't stop her from wishing she had a hearty steak to chow down on...

While lost in her own thoughts, an enemy made their advance upon her. With one swift, clean blow, a Killer Lance impaled Effie from behind. The knight looked down below her in shock, seeing the serrated edge of the blade piercing her torso for only a moment before it was pulled out. Effie staggered backwards, hunching down as she dropped her shield to place a hand on her breastplate. Bringing her hand up for her to see, she found her gauntlet moistened in a crimson glimmer.

"Here we go!" a feminine voice called from behind her. Given little time to react, Effie reached for her shield. The enemy dove her pegasus towards her once more, landing a blunt blow behind Effie's head. The Nohrian knight fell forward, dropping her lance as she landed face-first into her shield.

"Oh, darn! I gotta do better than that!" The enemy Shanna griped to herself above the dying knight. "Darnit, darnit, darnit…"

Turning her head towards Shanna, Effie could merely groan, unable to continue fighting. Although she could sustain heavy injuries, the ones she had endured during the Tempest were far too great for her to handle. She slumped by her shield as a pool of blood formed below her. In her mind, she thought of Lady Elise, her glimmering eyes and cheerful smile. It was undeniable that she missed her dearly, having been gone from her side for so long. If she were to die here, she would never see her again...

Effie heaved, grabbing her shield and lance as she slowly rose. Even after being impaled, slashed and bludgeoned, the only thing keeping her from death was her love for her Lady Elise. The mere thought of her losing one of her beloved retainers, especially to a mere pegasus knight in training, filled her with nothing but rage. "I'll… crush... you!" she screamed, charging towards the sprightly flier. Once she deemed close enough, jabbed the lance into the pegasus's leg. The pegasus squealed, Shanna yelping as she was knocked of their back before she could grab their reins.

Encumbered by her wounds, the Nohrian knight approached the sprightly flier with , grasping her lance tightly as her legs beginning to wobble with each step. Shanna squirmed, hastefully bringing herself up off the ground. The girl stared in horror at the sight, tears streaming down her cheeks while she prepared her own lance in defense: a knight, brutally wounded by her foes yet still standing, moving, able to kill for her cause. Her once-pink armor glistened a deep red hue, dyed by the blood of both herself and her previous foe. An unkillable Army of One, prepared to strike at her at any moment.

But before Effie would make her first move, she froze, silent and unmoving. Shanna paused, waiting to see why the knight delayed her move before attempting to strike her herself. The pegasus knight swung her lance towards the still Effie, missing. Yet, Effie did not counter attack- she simply stood still. The enemy Shanna stared at Effie with a look of confusion, taking baby steps towards her, frightened by both her appearance and the situation at hand. Now standing a mere half-metre away from one another, Shanna could see Effie's suffering from up close: her breathing haphazard and erratic, her face muddied with injuries, cuts and burns from fights past. Unwilling by the Tempest's will to retreat, Shanna prepared her lance, hitting the Nohrian knight on the side of her head.

Effie stood still, unflinching from her attack. Bringing her lance up, she allocated the last of her strength into her final blow. "For… Lady Elise…" she muttered under her breath before striking her lance into Shanna's thigh. The blade of her lance pierced easily through the cloth of the pegasus knight's skirt, the girl flinching before screaming in agony.

It was then that the knight gave into her wounds, Effie falling to the ground. The limitless knight now having exerted beyond her unperceived limit, her surge of adrenaline fading away. Shanna stared at the near lifeless body of the bled-out knight, frightened by her cold expression. Like her foe before her, Effie too, faded away, the wind delivering her remains to safety lest she be killed by the threats of its trials. Without wasting a moment, Shanna returned to her wounded pegasus, mounting them once more to study their wounds before returning to battle.

Henry, enthralled by the battle that had ensued, watched from afar. Each careful move brought him excitement, the everso captivating viscera captivated him in the action. The sight of his ally passing in combat only further fueled the fires of fascination that burned from within. It was then he longed to be in Effie's position, feeling the thrill of the fight, the bloodrush of a fiend's befalling or of his own. His injuries alone were not enough for this masochistic mage- to be in the cusp of death was a desire that Henry craved and, with the enemy Shanna soon approaching him, it was a craving he was prepared to sate soon.

The Plegian mage's fascinations faded upon sight of this sprightly flier. "Aw, gee, such a shame! I was expecting a challenge, and all little Henry got was the scraps of someone else's killing," he teased, opening his tome to prepare a spell. From his tome unleashed malevolent apparitions, hellbent on ripping and tearing anything in their paths."Oh well! Killing's a killing, be it me or the enemy! Hey, that rhymed!"

Her pegasus's flying erratic due to its wounds, Shanna attempted to dodge Henry's attack. This Illian knight, however, was too slow: upon impact, the ghosts bursted into an explosion of...candy? The enemy Shanna looked at the Plegian mage with an odd expression; after all, why would anyone use candy to fight in a life-or-death situation? Still, this candy was not completely sweet, as it still did quite the number upon this pegasus knight- especially considering her disadvantage, a lance unit against a mage equipped with a green tome. The attack further ailed her for she was too far away to counterattack, merely taking the deep hit that this strangely sugar-coated surprise gave her.

Now it was Shanna's turn to attack, making haste towards the Plegian mage with full intent upon taking him down. With her lance held high, her pegasus swooped down as she prepared to strike her foe. Before she could attack, however, Henry held his coffin up, allowing it to soak the damage that the pegasus knight attempted to inflict upon him. "Nice try! But as much as I love death, you're gonna need to do a teensy weensy little bit more than that to kill me!" Henry boasted, preparing his tome once more- a result of the Summoner sacrifice to give him the gift of close counter. The sinister spirits shrieked, the force of these summoned specters knocking Shanna off of her pegasus, dropping her to the ground.

Before Henry could continue his monstrous onslaught, however, he was intercepted by a fellow ally. Curtained in a purple cape, this King of Bern landed a swift, clean blow upon the enemy Shanna. As did her previous friend and foe Shanna, too, faded away within the Tempest's winds. "Hmph."

"Hey, what's the big idea, big guy?!" Henry whined, his arms crossed. "That was my kill!"

"Henry, cease your lollygagging and make haste," Zephiel glared at him, retracting his Echesacks to its dormant, lance-like state. "The summoner commands us to aid our ally."

The Plegian shifted a brow. "You? Mr.-Grumpy-Pants? Wanting to help others? Jeez, those side effects the Tempest has on us must be pretty bad."

"It is the will of the Summoner," Zephiel furrowed his brow, clenching his teeth as he spoke. "Our contract decrees our loyalty to them, despite our own beliefs," he looked over his shoulder, taking on a glimpse of the nearby duel.

The intensely mauve skies surrounding them set the stage for the finale of the Tempest's trials: a clash of blade and beast. Its contender, a Branded general encased in ebony armor, grasping upon his divine blade blessed by the goddess Ashera. His opponent, the remains of a Ylissean tactician, now merely a vessel for an unstoppable man-made god.

"I am the wings of despair. I am the breath of ruin," The vessel proclaimed. From behind them a colossal, reptile-like being rose, unleashing a hellish shriek.

"I am the Fell Dragon, Grima."


End file.
